This morning, on the way to school, my 4th-grader announced: "I feel like you're the only mom who looks like a mom..."
I laughed and wondered if that is a good or bad thing in his eyes. I thought of all the other things I've looked like in my life: daughter, tomboy, cheerleader, college partier, barista, flight attendant, writer, wife, friend, hippie, church-goer, rebellious human, struggling forty-something...the list goes on. And then I remembered who I really am, and everything else faded into the background: I am a child of the Creator of the universe, and that is the one thing that will never change. No matter what role I'm playing, no matter how anyone sees me, no matter what I believe about myself at the moment, this one truth is deeper than all of it. And in the end, it's all I need.
How about you? What roles define you these days? There are many good things we can be on this earth, but this is just a gentle reminder that there is one thing that matters in the end. You are more than what anyone sees and more deeply loved and cherished than you can imagine, forever.